As a proud alumna of the Harvard Kennedy School (HKS), it was saddening to hear of the contentious outbreak at the affiliated Harvard Institute Of Politics (IOP) forum involving the Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump campaign staff.

That forum is where I’d spent many hours listening and engaging with world leaders kind enough to meet with students dedicated to public service; it was where we gathered for the school’s talent show, for our school graduation photo, and more. That such a venue would devolve into a shouting match of anger and name-calling, particularly by Team Clinton, highlights the ongoing bitterness between the two camps.

Yet, in some ways, these political operatives were as divided as the nation itself.

While the exchange was extraordinary — reportedly this long-term tradition has never been so hostile — it was also illustrative of broader trends.

It’s clear that the Clinton camp has been unable to come to terms with its defeat, just as many of its supporters continue their mantra of #NotMyPresident.

What is interesting is that the Clinton staffers’ name-calling and anger embodied the very sort of hostile decorum that Clinton had been decrying against Trump. That Clinton would participate in electoral recounts is a 180 degree turn from her attacks on Trump for saying in the final presidential debate that he may not accept the electoral results.

But the IOP exchange also tapped into deep-seated fears of many liberals in the darkest ways, and the hyperbole of the Clinton staffers illustrates that just as millions of Americans projected irrational hopes onto Barack Obama, it appears millions have also projected irrational fears onto Donald Trump.

But their deepest fears have not been realized and, indeed, hype about white supremacy creeping over the electorate doesn’t match with the fact that Trump actually shrunk his percentage of the white vote (58 percent) compared to Mitt Romney (59 percent), and Trump gained ground over Romney with black and Latino voters.

Trump has also toned down his rhetoric and selected credentialed, reasonable staff picks like KT McFarland as deputy national security advisor, attorney Donald McGahn as White House counsel and Gov. Nikki Haley as U.N. ambassador.

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Carrie Sheffield is the founder of Bold. She is passionate about storytelling to empower and connect others. A founding reporter at POLITICO, Carrie contributed on political economy at Forbes, wrote editorials for The Washington Times under Tony Blankley and advised Bustle, a popular digital media brand. Carrie earned a master’s in public policy from Harvard University, concentrating in business policy. She has a B.A. in communications at Brigham Young University and completed a Fulbright fellowship in Berlin.